Holy Spirit Unleashed – Listen

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A sermon by Matt Fitzpatrick

June 16 2019

Good morning. Well, happy father’s Day. It’s a day we remember fathers for good. You try to remember the good about what they’ve done. And fortunately for us, we have a Heavenly Father. It’s how we address him as our father. Let’s ask him to bless our time today. Pray with me. Dear Heavenly Father, we receive your call to worship as our father. You have given us an inheritance. You’ve given us your presence, and your love. You’ve given us your son, Jesus Christ, and we thank you. These are the things we carry. These are the things that identify us, that give us security and even set out who we are, our meaning and our purpose in life, to love you and to love one another. We thank you for this great call, and we thank you that we get to be your children. You are God, and we are your creation. We worship you today in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As we began to worship, we want to recognize that we are not God. The reality that we’re not God means that we are not held responsible for being perfect. We’re creatures that need forgiveness from a creator God. And so we let this prayer set the whole tone. It’s a prayer of confession for things we’ve done and haven’t done. If you can do it, and you want to put yourself in that position to receive God’s grace and mercy, let’s pray this together and then receive his word of absolution. So we pray, Lord, most Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against thee in thought word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. And then all mighty God in His mercy has given his Son to die for you and for his sake, forgives you all your sins. Amen. Lord, we praise you for loving us, for being a Heavenly Father to us, for keeping us close to you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

We’ve gone through Easter season. We had Pentecost Sunday last week and then today is the recognition of the Trinity. Historically since the year 800, the Church has been celebrating Trinity Sunday because it’s right after Pentecost. The Holy Spirit now has been unleashed. Father, Son and Holy Spirit have revealed themselves and given themselves freely to the world. So today we recognize the Trinity, God in three persons. It’s definitely a distinction for Christians.

I want to read the first passage. I always try to read a passage from the Gospel, so you hear from Jesus and then we’ll talk about a passage from the book of Acts. You can listen or go with me to John chapter 8, verse 48 through 59, and see if you can figure out what this has to do with Trinity Sunday. It’s a fun little game. John chapter 8, verse 48. I might ask you after we read it. You can tell me what does this have to do with the Trinity? Let’s see if you can do it. Verse 48:

John 8:48-59“The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’c But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

This is the reading of God’s Word from the gospel of John. So what does that have to do with Trinity Sunday? If you don’t know, that’s great. I’m so glad I’m here. You should be glad I’m here. What is it? I hear whispering and murmuring among the people. Right! Good job, Lowery. Who’s your dad? There’s a confession. He says, “before Abraham was I am,” which is a name for God, the I am. He’s saying to the people who know the law, who are protecting the law from guys like Jesus, because they think Jesus is challenging authority. Jesus is saying things that’s going to make it politically difficult for them and spiritually difficult for them. They don’t believe it. And Jesus says, “before your man, the guy who God called out and started a nation in Abraham, I was there.” It’s very offensive, because Jesus is saying he’s God. He doesn’t taste death. That’s just one of many places where Jesus says, I am.

And on a Sunday where we celebrate Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, know there’s no confusion in the scriptures about Jesus being God. It’s why they killed him. It’s also why we kill him, because we want to be god of our own lives and our own universe. And when someone else is God, we silence them. And so we silence Jesus. He is God. He said it plainly, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That’s the John reading. It’s all setting up for the the book of Acts. We celebrated Pentecost last week, and today we continue the same sermon of Peter on the day of Pentecost, so in Acts chapter 2 we’ll pick up Peter’s sermon.

Just to catch you up, here’s what’s happened. Fifty days after Passover is Pentecost. Remember? Remember the festivals are to rehearse, to reenact what God has done. We tend to think a feast is just about the meal, but you’re rehearsing or reenacting some great event. I don’t know if you celebrated, when the Cubs won the world series, you should have. You get together, you might wear your Cubs outfit, and you rehearse and you talk about the great hits and the great games. That’s what these festivals are. People come and gather at Passover and Jesus says, “I am the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.” He is the blood on the doorposts of Passover. So the reenactment of Passover becomes this reality where Jesus dies for us, and is resurrected. Then 50 days later is Pentecost, and that was to celebrate the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. So they all come from all around to celebrate and remember and rehearse the fact that God gave us his Law, his Words. That is what they called it. They called it the Words of God. Here’s what defines you as my people: you don’t kill; you don’t steal; you worship God. This is who you are, and they celebrate that. So the Holy Spirit, after the ascension of Jesus, is poured out on the day of Pentecost on purpose. Jesus is saying, “I’m changing your festivals.” They’re becoming more inclusive. They’re going to include the whole world. That was the goal. Israel, you were supposed to carry this light and you were going to bless all nations. That’s what God said to Abraham, so here’s Peter and the disciples speaking all these dialects in these languages that they couldn’t possibly know. All these people are gathering around them asking, “What’s going on?” And there’s been a rushing wind. A recreation is happening. God’s breath is creating. There’s holiness. It’s all happening. What’s happening? Peter says it’s the Holy Spirit being poured out, so that all who call on the name of Jesus can be saved. That’s where we left off. So just realize Jesus’ death allows for a recreation. We’re not going to stay in death. Think of when God breathed into man in creation, the Holy Spirit recreates us.

Creation is being restored and we are being redeemed. And it’s not just for the Israelites. It’s for all who will believe in it. Starting right here at Pentecost. So when we talk about the Holy Spirit, it’s not about confusion. It’s about comfort. Anytime someone’s talking about the scriptures, and it is leading you into confusion just say, “Dear Jesus, all glory to you and all comfort to your people.” The Holy Spirit is comfort to you. You’re not orphans. Jesus’ promised, and now here it comes. Let’s read. Act chapter 2, verse 22:

Acts 2:22“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

This is the reading of God’s word. We praise God for it.

Did you understand that? Isn’t that a funny sermon? The Holy Spirit is poured out, and this is what Peter’s talking about. To us, it’s a little awkward. Did you kind of have a hard time concentrating through the David quote. I always do. It’s okay to admit it. When he starts quoting David, you think, “This is probably important”, and then your mind goes blank. It’s hard. Let me get you through that part, because that’s the cultural part. That’s Peter knowing his audience and the audience is Jews who have been dispersed because of exile. God has dispersed them because they acted like the pagans and desecrated the land and each other and God. Anytime there’s an angry mob destroying things, we disperse them. It’s a loving act to save things that had been created.

God in his love disperses his people, because they had become indistinguishable from the other cultures. Now they’re coming back to celebrate. They’re coming back, and the Holy Spirit’s reversing the tower of Babel. They’re hearing languages to bring them around Jesus Christ, but the only thing they know the language of king. They know there’s a Roman king, a political leader, and they know there was a king in Israel, David. He was the best. There was Saul, David, Solomon, there were maybe eighty to a hundred years where things were awesome. The other 800 years were not good, but they always remember David. Peter is saying David was the greatest king, but this Jesus was greater. Here’s what God did through this Jesus. Jesus ascended to the right hand of God, the Father. He is your king. That’s what all that’s about. He’s your king. David died and was buried. Jesus rose from the dead. He is your king.

Here’s where I want to get to today. The very real question, “So what does this mean to me? What do we do? Just tell me how to be good, right?” That’s what you want to know. That’s what I want to know. The original audience wanted to know that too, but they had a little more angst about it, because he just said Jesus was king, better than David, and you killed him. Isn’t that a wonderful message. I mean Peter says it twice. If we were advising Peter as a church planter, we’d say, “Hold off on accusing people of killing Jesus. Maybe drop that in a home visit or somewhere a little less public.” But it’s the thing Peter leads with, “You killed Jesus.”

These guys were dispersed. “We weren’t even in Jerusalem when Jesus died. Don’t blame us!” But it’s Peter. Peter knows. Peter’s the guy who betrayed Jesus. He said, “I don’t know him.” And Peter is saying, “I know you didn’t kill him like that”, but spiritually, we’re implicated. We silence him. We want him to shut up. We’re scared of other things. We’re not fearing God. We’re more scared of being liked or keeping a job. We’re implicated. But how do you even feel that? How do you even believe that? Do you believe it when I say, “You and I, we killed Jesus.” ?

Give me a feedback on this one. Do you see how you’re implicated? If you’re nodding your head, this is evidence to me that you’re full of the Holy Spirit. Those of you who did nothing, I don’t know now. Luckily it doesn’t matter what I think. The first thing that happens is these guys get cut to the heart. Do you want to know how to listen to the Holy Spirit? Do you want to know how to be Spirit led? Let me tell you how. The first thing that happens if you’re going to live with the Spirit is the Spirit convicts you and cuts to your heart. That’s a great gift because it takes faith. It takes God opening up your eyes to confess, “I am guilty of that. I haven’t loved God with all my heart and my soul, my mind and my strength. I haven’t loved my neighbor as much as I can.” The Holy Spirit brings the problem up to the forefront.

We spend our time justifying ourselves. I’m pretty good. Look at that guy. These are my rights. This is what human nature always does. We defend our rights. We justify who we are. I can tell you why I did that, and it’s better than someone else. I think I’m pretty good, but then the Holy Spirit is released to say, I”m applying to you the work of Christ. You don’t have to justify yourself.” You get to say, “Oh, I’m not perfect.” Their hearts are cut. We get to say, “Then what do we do? What do we do then Lord, if I’m not perfect?” So the question to Peter is, “What do we do brothers?” How would any other system or religion answer this question? If you have guilt, you’re guilty for killing, how do you get over that guilt and shame? Just spiritually, let’s not even talk about the legal system. How would you get over that?

Well in the west, the philosophies and religions would say just make sure your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds. An eastern mindset would be, it might take several generations of you reincarnating, but with simple acts of suffering and love and meditation, you can start to balance things out again. In our current culture, philosophically I would call it modern existentialism, you create your own existence. You can’t do anything about the shame and guilt, but you’re a self made man and it’s all about the education you get now and the choices you make and who you’re going to become.

That sounds all pretty good, right? That doesn’t sound foreign to you, does it? Does that sound normal? If you ask the man on the street, how do you get rid of shame and guilt? Well, you try to do your best and then eventually just get over feeling that. Those are practical realities and it doesn’t sound too foreign to us because that’s what the world has. That’s what every other system has. It’s got to add to your to do list. You want to be right with God. Get out your to do list. We have more stuff to do, and your heart breaks, because you can’t even keep up with the to do list you already made. It attacks you.

Peter announces the good news. He’s announcing, he’s heralding there’s a new king and you killed him. What do we do? He says the unthinkable. Here’s what you do. You do nothing and you receive something. You do nothing. Stop and receive something from God. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will do something to you. Peter’s answer is repent and be baptized. Stop. That’s all repent means. Repent means stop. And in the spiritual sense it means stop trying to justify yourself.

With the youth group, I keep using the example of our little dogs. We had several dogs in our house and we love our little dog, Lacey. What does Lacey have to do to be the best possible dog for me? What does she have to do? If she said, “What do I have to do? Rough. I want to please you, Adam.” I’d say, “Keep being a cute dog. You go potty outside, and you wait for us to take you. That’s really nice and I think you’re eating well, and you’re being playful at the right times. You’re a great little dog.” That’s the relationship. You are doing what you were created to do, and you’re a cute little dog around the house. We love you.

That’s the relationship between creator and creation. When we come to God and say, “God, I’m really good. I’m going to control people better. I’m going to love better.” God says, “Whoa, you don’t understand. You can’t even understand how to keep all this under control. I want you to be a nice little human. Stop justifying yourself and telling me all the places you’re right, trying to prove to me that you’re something else.” Instead repent and say, “God, forgive me. I’m not the perfect picture of a human yet. Forgive me.” God says, “Right, that’s what you’re created for. You were created to stop justifying yourself and let me justify it. I’ll tell you, you’re good because of Christ.”

Forgiveness is an exercise. Here’s what I mean. In every area of life, you know things take time. We plant a tomato seed. We don’t think, “I planted this tomato seed and now I don’t know why there’s not tomatoes.” We don’t expect that. We know we’re gonna have to work, that we’re going to have to weed it, and we have to water it. But when it comes to Christianity and spirituality, we’ve confused the onetime action of God with us doing something once. We think, “I prayed a prayer” and that’s good, but that is nothing like anything else in creation. In creation, you have to mow the yard, weed it, feed the kids everyday, feed yourself everyday. This is how you grow. And I feel sometimes with forgiveness and repentance, we say it once and think it’s done. I forgave that person. Well they wounded you really deeply. You have patterns of sin and you say, “God, forgive me.” I think I’m done. No. The one time action of God is Jesus died once, Jesus rose from the dead once. Jesus is doing the one time thing, and we’re looking to him all the time. This is what the Holy Spirit does. He convicts and then he lifts up Jesus Christ, so that we look back to Jesus all the time. It’s an exercise.

Here’s how it works for me. Every morning I work through prayer and I ask God to forgive me. I repent. Now it’s not like a depressing repentance. Not like I have a long list, like I’m some kind of gangster. We think of repentance as, “Oh, I’ve done something awful,” and trust me, anytime you talk to another human, there’s a risk that you say something that’s offensive or hard. That always happens. So you might say, “God, forgive me for saying that thing, for lying, or for stealing, but for most of us, it’s not those things. It’s “Forgive me father, for fearing and loving and trusting something else. I’m anxious about this because I care so much about what these people think, forgive me, I need to care about what you think. I want you to be there with me. Or forgive me, I haven’t done everything I can.” I do this everyday. It’s an exercise.

When I say, “God, forgive me in the name of Jesus and help me to do better,” the Holy Spirit brings the Word of God that says, “I’ve given you my Son to die for you. It’s for his sake, I forgive you all your sins.” The Holy Spirit wants us to hear every day, “I forgive you.” It wasn’t intended to be a onetime thing. You need to hear it everyday, because you’re confronted by death and limitations, you are mourning, and you are sad. You can’t control things. Let the Holy Spirit convict you, but then let him speak forgiveness over you. Repent and receive forgiveness. God will remove your sin. This is a work of the Holy Spirit, and it’s always looking to Jesus Christ under God the Father.

Then Peter says something else very strange to us. Repent and be baptized. Be baptized, because baptism is where the action of God takes place. Again, we see it from our perspective, so we often see baptism as a confession of faith we make which is awesome, but there’s a whole other perspective going on too. God is working. Jesus commands the disciples and the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And for God, baptism is where he makes it official. It’s your citizenship or adoption. When you get baptized, it’s the moment where God says, “I put my mark on you.” Just like with Jesus, he said, “This is my son with whom I’m well pleased.” The holy dove descends. The Holy Spirit is there. So Peter says, “There’s a new king. Repent. Stop. Put yourself under him and then receive citizenship into his kingdom. It’s assimilation. Be baptized, washing and cleansing. Drowning the old man and being raised again to life. That’s the imagery of water. The Egyptians drowned. The people of God come out. So baptism becomes a place where we anchor. It’s where God says, “I receive you.” Peter says, “In baptism, something special happens.”

Did you catch that in verse 38 “Repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The scriptures will say, the Holy Spirit is a washing and regeneration. God says, “I want you to locate in baptism. I want you to know I’ve done something to you there.” Then he says, “I give you the gift of the Holy Spirit.” I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about that. For us as we are getting overwhelmed, we remember our baptism. When we’re feeling bad and overwhelmed, we we recognize the reality. We cannot do everything perfect. Thank the Holy Spirit for that. Then go to him and say, “Help me. Forgive me,” and receive God’s forgiveness. Then remember your baptism. Remember that God gave you the adoption papers, and you can remember when you first fell in love with him. Remember the baptism is the moment, a silly moment by some silly pastor, but it was serious moment from God. You’re adopted there. So remember your baptism because you remembered. That’s where you are cleansed. The Holy Spirit was gifted to you. I see it in all of you. You know you’re here today, this is a sign. This is a reality. You’re here today because the Holy Spirit said, “I want to worship Jesus.” That’s what’s so good about this. You may have thought, “I really don’t want to go, but I’m supposed to bring food today.” That’s how we tricked you to do the right thing. But I want you to know the Holy Spirit is not some far off mystical thing. It’s in you. It’s a comfort. So the fact that you even feel bad sometimes, praise God. The Holy Spirit is opening up your eyes to know that you are not God. That’s a gift. It’s a release.

I know all of you. I know you all feel messed up, so I know the Spirit’s there. The Holy Spirit doesn’t leave you in the problem. He gives you removal of sin and says you’re forgiven. You know that. Rest in it. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. And then we’ll spend a lot of time talking about life in the Spirit as we go from here. This is how we listen to the Holy Spirit. Listen to him. He wants Jesus to justify you and defend you. He grant life and life abundantly, and now you have it through the Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks to God the Father who gets all glory and we get all comfort.

Let me pray, “Father, thank you. We thank you that we don’t have to prove why we’re good Christians, or why you should love us. We thank you that you say to us in one of the first sermons, repent and be baptized. We can do that. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would fill our hearts and our minds. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would encourage everybody that’s here listening. That if there is one thing that was said that struck their heart, they can just say, thanks, Holy Spirit, I heard it. You’re teaching me to listen. You’re giving me confidence to know this is you. It’s comfort. Comfort your people. We praise you. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We ask you, bless us in Jesus name. Amen.